St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-26
William Gilbert, Travelling Man, Found
III the Thoes Of Death Shortly
After IL O'clock
On The Steps Of Disreputabla House Oh
Wabasha Street---His Neck Be-
ieVed to be Broken.
Four Colored Women of Bad Character
Arrested as Supposed Per-
petrat0rs of the Deed.
One of Them Has the Murdered mans
Watch---Their Object Thought
to Have Been ROBBERY.

A blood-curdling cry of distress was
vicinity of Fifth and Cedar streets, at
11:55 last night. Alarmed pedestrians
ran in the direction of the cry, which
was distinctly heard in the GIoRE office,
but were unable to discover anything,
and policemen on the neigh
boring beats began a careful
search for the origin of the cry. At
1910 O'Clock this morning Josie Lewis,
Il young mulatto girl employed in the
fruit store ut 395 Wabasha street, and
living upstairs with several other col
ored women of diSreputable character,
came to Officer Smith, crying, and said
there was dead man lying on the back
steps of the house. The officer ac-
cOmpanied her
THROUGH \ GATE
opening into the yard back of the fruit
store, and up rickety pair of wooden
stairs, at the head of which, on a plat
form just in front of door opening into
the lodgings above, lay good-looking
white man of medium height and build,
unconscious and groaning feebly. There
were no marks of violence on his body
except slight cut in the lip.
The patrol wagon was called at once
and the man taken to the Central sta
ton, where he died at 1:15. without
uttering word or sign. Letters and
papers were found on his person which
identify him as William Gilbert, an eX-
pert travelling mechanic for the Ruttan
Manufacturing company, makers of
heating and ventilating apparatus,
with headquarters at 6S Lake street,
Chicago. Letters from the house for
which he travelled indicated that he had
been to Prescott and other Wisconsin
towns recently, and an entry in
-I"a HIS EXPENSE BOOK
showed that he was at Alma, Wis,
whittier he probably came to st. Paul.
A visitors certificate from the Peter
boro, Ont, lodge, l. 0. 0. F., at
tested that he was an Odd Fellow of
good standing, under date of May 1.
His home is believed, from this, to be
at PeterbOro. He wore full
brown beard, trimmed Short
and had on summer suiting
of light-brown check material, and a
new pair of shoes. Drs. Witherlee and
Spencer examined his body carefully
and were of the opinion that his neck
was fractured. Four colored prosti-
tutes were Immediately arrested for
completely in his murder. They were
Ada Glenn and Ada Gault, who room
in the adjoining upstairs at 393 Waba-
sha street, and Mollie Frye and Josie
Lewis, who occupied the rooms at No.
395.
JOSIE LEWIS CRIED
freely when locked in the cell, but the
others maintained a sturdy silence.
Their stories are altogether conflicting,
except that all deny having ever seen
Gilbert. MOllie Frye claimed to have
been out with John Cunningham,
a colored saloonkeeper on Minnesota
street, who rooms in the lodgings at
393 Wabasha, and with Jimmy Taylor, a
Pullman car porter, all the evening.
Her story is corroborated by Cunning
ham in the following statement:
Ne and MOllie Frye and jim Taylor Just
came up from closing my saloon little after
l O'Clock, and l was coming up stairs to
go to bed when the girl (Josie Lewis
came up from over the fruit
store crying and says There's a
men out here, and guess he's dead SAYS
go get policeman, and she and Mollie went
for an officer. and we all went around there
where he was lying, and l helped pick him
up and put him in the patrol wagon
VERY SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE
in the case, duplicating Mollie FRYE. is
that when Officer Phil Gibbons came
with the patrol wagon, i'll moment of
fright, she took from her pocket
and handed him Gilbert's gold
watch. Detectives went to work On
the case at once, and may fasten the
guilt of Gilbert's murder upon one OF
all of the women now under arrest. 1t
is surmised that Gilbert was intoxicated
when he went to the place, and
was struck the fatal blow with
club or beer bottle-the object prob
ably being robbery; Gilbert had $40 in
money on his person when found, and a
Chicago, Burlington q Northern mile
age book, almost unused.
--aEar1-